1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a telephonic telemeeting system connectable to the telephone network, whether public or private, in order to simultaneously link up several telephone sets of participants and thus establish an audioconference.
2 Description of the Prior Art
The telemeeting system comprises a terminal connected to the telephone network via plural terminal telephone lines equal in number to the maximum number of participants at a telemeeting. Each of the participants is provided with a telephone set which is associated with multifrequency-code signal generating means and which is selectively serviced by one of the terminal lines through the telephone network. One of the terminal telephone lines is attributed to an organizer of the telemeeting. This organizer monitors the telemeeting via the terminal mainly in order to call the participants, to receive calls from the participants, to select the participants whose speech is to be broadcast to the other participants, to restore the broadcasting of speech to participants who are only listening in, and to remove participants from the telemeeting.
A terminal for such a telemeeting system is disclosed in French patent application No. 2,592,541. This terminal comprises plural communication setting-up and cutting-off means respectively servicing the terminal lines for seizing the terminal lines and calling the participants under the control of the organizer set and for answering calls from the participant sets and transmitting said participant calls to the organizer set, switching and broadcasting means connected to the plural communication setting-up and cutting-off means for selectively broadcasting, under the control of the organizer set, voice signals coming from at least one of the participant sets to the other participant sets during the telemeeting, a multifrequency-code detector connected to one of the plural communication setting-up and cutting-off means servicing the organizer terminal line for decoding encoded control signals transmitted from the organizer set into decoded control signals, and a control circuit for setting-up and cutting-off communications between the participants and the organizer via the communication setting-up and cutting-off means and for selecting at least one of the participant sets whose voice signals are to be broadcast to the other telephone sets as a function of the decoded command signals.
In this telemeeting system, all of the above-mentioned operations commanded in the terminal by the organizer are not confirmed to the organizer. When an operation is decided by the organizer, the organizer is unaware of whether or not the operation has been performed by the terminal; in the event of defective working of the terminal, the organizer cannot attribute the operation failure to the terminal or to a wrong command. Furthermore, particularly when there is a large number of participants and when the operations to be performed during the telemeeting are numerous, it is difficult for the organizer to remember the exact condition of the various line connections and disconnections and the line and speech attributions to the participants in the terminal.